Former England batter Owais Shah termed Yashasvi Jaiswal as the “most dangerous” Indian batter on current form. Jaiswal scored back-to-back half-centuries to put India in a good position on Day 1 of the second Test against England at the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam. Jaiswal had scored an attacking 80 in the first innings of the Hyderabad Test that set the platform for the hosts to put up a big total but in the second innings when India were chasing 231, Jaiswal went into his shell and in the end, tapped a straightforward delivery to the forward short leg fielder.
Jaiswal was too attacking in the first innings in Hyderabad and in the second innings, it was the opposite. In Visakhapatnam, he applied the middle path. Jaiswal (51 batting off 92) had the company of Shreyas Iyer (4 batting) at the break after the fall of Rohit (14 off 41) and Shubman Gill (34 off 46), who looked good before James Anderson had him caught behind with a beauty.
The left-hander gave an impression of taking the aggressive route by hitting two boundaries in the first over of Joe Root just like he had done against Tom Hartley in the first Test. The conviction, however, was missing. He was nearly out caught in the first ball of Root but thankfully, the ball evaded the fielders. But after that first over, he settled down. He got a good stride in to counter off-spinners Root and Shoaib Bashir, on debut.
Owais Shah tells England to be wary of Yashasvi Jaiswal
Shah said Jaiswal is an attacking cricketer and if he is ready to give himself time to pounce on the loose deliveries then those are dangerous signs for England.
“The talent is there. He has maintained the same approach in domestic cricket. We looked at how he batted in the IPL and that is why he got the opportunity in international cricket. We saw that in the first Test how attacking he can be. He hit two sixes off Tom Hartley’s first over. Even here, he tried to be positive. Hit Joe Root for a boundary early on. It was in the air but this is how modern-day batters play. What an innings he has played so far. I think he is the most dangerous Indian batter at the moment,” Shah said in the post-Lunch show on Jio Cinema.
While being watchful, Jaiswal was quick to punish the loose balls in the first hour of play before stepping on the accelerator.
He used the sweep shot sparingly and got majority of his boundaries with the cut shot. Jaiswal whipped a full toss from Bashir for the first six of his innings before reaching his half-century with a four through point.
India expectedly decided to bat first on a flat surface and made three changes to their playing eleven, bringing in debutant Rajat Patidar, Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar for K L Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Siraj respectively.
Found guilty of throwing away their wickets in Hyderabad, the opening combine of Rohit and Jaiswal batted in a sedate fashion especially in the first hour of play, collecting only 40 runs in 16 overs.
England opened the bowling with James Anderson, the lone pacer and off-spinner Joe Root. Anderson was accurate and frugal in his opening spell, giving away only six runs in five overs. The surface had minimal help for him but the 41-year-old still made life tough for Rohit by targeting his stumps. It was very unlike Rohit to not to go for his shots and his innings ended without a boundary.
The India captain eventually fell in the 18th over when off-spinner Bashir got one to turn sharply and Rohit flicked it straight to Ollie Pope at leg-slip. Jaiswal, on the other hand, showed much more positive intent.
